Top DHS Official: Russian Cyberattacks Targeted Election Systems In 21 States

Voters line up to cast ballots in a special election in Atlanta, Tuesday, April 18, 2017. Republicans are bidding to prevent a major upset in a conservative Georgia congressional district Tuesday where Democrats stoked by opposition to President Donald Trump have rallied behind a candidate who has raised a shocking amount of money for a special election. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Voters line up to cast ballots in a special election in Atlanta, Tuesday, April 18, 2017. Republicans are bidding to prevent a major upset in a conservative Georgia congressional district Tuesday where Democrats stok... Voters line up to cast ballots in a special election in Atlanta, Tuesday, April 18, 2017. Republicans are bidding to prevent a major upset in a conservative Georgia congressional district Tuesday where Democrats stoked by opposition to President Donald Trump have rallied behind a candidate who has raised a shocking amount of money for a special election. (AP Photo/David Goldman) MORE LESS
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A senior Department of Homeland Security official revealed Wednesday that election systems in 21 states were targeted by Russian cyberattacks during the 2016 election.

Acting DHS Undersecretary Jeanette Manfra confirmed in a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing what has been previously reported: that Russian operatives tried to interfere with the U.S. electoral infrastructure itself.

“We have evidence of election-related systems in 21 states that were targeted,” Manfra testified, declining to disclose which specific states were targeted.

Manfra also said she would not share which states had data “exfiltrated” from their voting systems in an open hearing.

 

According to a June Bloomberg report based on interviews with anonymous officials, Russian hackers attempted to delete or alter voter data in Illinois and successfully accessed a campaign finance database in another state. That report said that voter databases and software systems were targeted in a total of 39 states.

As other intelligence officials have previously testified, both Manfra and Sam Liles, acting director of the DHS’ Cyber Division, told the Senate Intelligence panel that the actual vote count was not affected by cyberattacks.

“None of these systems were involved in vote tallying,” Liles testified.

Owners of all of the targeted voting systems and the states in which data was compromised were all notified, according to the DHS officials.

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